michael leone

Surprise

Reviewed: 01-21-23

Surprisingly the narrator actually improved. It only took five epic length novels and hundreds of hours of audio time but it happened. The distinction between major characters was still minimal and his voices are still grating, pretentious and/or idiotic but an improvement is an improvement.

The story was excellent. A truly impressive take on the Arthurian legends. In my opinion, a far more likely scenario than the dominant story but whatever, it was still very entertaining, thoughtful and fun. Anyone who is interested in Arthur would do well to include these books in their collection.

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Execrable Narration

Reviewed: 09-05-22

Wonderful story. Very intricate, smart and engrossing historical fiction. It all would have been nearly perfect if not for the narrator.

I’ve made it this far just because of the outstanding content. I bought the books and read them when I’m not commuting or doing something where I can’t sit and read. I keep wondering how enjoyable these books would be with even a tolerable narrator.

He has only three “voices” and they’re all irritating. (See previous reviews in this series for my take on his so-called “voices.”) In this book he came up with a new one which was, literally, pinching closed his nose and talking! I just pray that he’s trolling the audience and not actually trying to be serious! And he’s, if anything, even worse on his so-called “pronunciation” of place and proper names.

One word for this narrator: execrable.

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TERRIBLE NARRATION!

Reviewed: 08-03-22

Anyone old enough to remember nails on a chalkboard will feel the same way. He made Publius’ friend Equis sound like Chumley on Tennessee Tuxedo (look it up if you’re not familiar.) And he pronounced Publius “poob-lee-us.” Which is probably close but at the same time he pronounced all the other names with a bland, lazy American accent so it just sounded ridiculous! And for the coup de grace he pronounced Boudicca as “Bo-dick-ah.” Yes, Bo-dick-ah!!! This in a book about Celtic-Roman Britain In which one would assume the narrator and audience would know the conventional (and linguistically accurate pronunciation!) Additionally, the characters all sound like one of three types. One, the pompous arrogant dickwad. Two, the 1950s eager, naive American ignorant fool. And three, the idiot who sounds like Chumley from Tennessee Tuxedo! I’ve decided to get the remainder of the books in paperback because I really liked the story, but if there’s something worse than nails on the chalkboard that narrator was it!

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Mavers?

Reviewed: 03-15-22

The character “Mavers” is ridiculous. I’ve moved in left-wing circles for three decades and I’ve never met anyone even close to as absurd as this character. He’s supposed to be a “leftist” yet he clearly hates everyone. In real life, the opposite is more often true. Left wing people tend to care about others, they try to make the world a better place. They might be angry at injustice but they tend to be forgiving of people. It’s just kind of a childish cheap shot by the author.

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Reactionary

Reviewed: 03-05-22

Interesting stories. Author is an arch reactionary who is at the same time astonishingly politically ignorant and a person who seemingly hates everyone. (She seemingly despises lazy freeloaders and yet decided to make her protagonist one…) Too bad, it really spoils great stories in a beautiful and interesting part of the world.

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Absurd

Reviewed: 02-02-22

I tried to enjoy this book. I love stories about regular people getting caught up in mysteries. But...

It started off well enough, And I was even ready to excuse the preposterous notion that a middle aged female antiquarian book seller could break the wrist, separate the shoulder and disable two large professional hit men, But while they were immobilizing said hit men her partner says "the law always favors the perpetrators." (The fuck you say??) This being the reason they didn't immediately call the police. And then he makes a comment about the fact that, by taking the pistol off of their would be assassins, they would do time for possessing that gun because Britain is not a free place where everyone apparently can't be armed to the teeth like in the freedom loving USA where you can be shot for looking at someone the wrong way, etc. Well, that was the implication anyway.

So then, after escaping from their would be killers the two decide to simply get a hotel and try and solve the mystery rather than doing the completely rational thing of heading to a police station and explaining that people are trying to kill them. Even IF (and that's a big if) there is some misunderstanding with the cops about the whole convoluted nature of the events there would be no safer place to try and figure out what the hell is going on than comfortably ensconced in a police station.

I see what he was going for. The author that is. He wants a Hitchcockian thriller where there is no safe place, on the run, etc., Something in the mode of DaVinci Code and so on. But the clown couldn't even be bothered to come up with a reasonable premise for why they SHOULD be on the run. Just something about the coddled nature of killers and the oppressed victims of violent crime in the British judicial system or some such bullshit. Beyond absurd. Even if there is some urban legend about some ridiculous event like the character Mallory suggests, it's really a class thing. The middle class book seller and independently wealthy IT tech would have nothing to worry about. If anyone thinks differently they need to get their heads out of their asses and OFF of the internet.

Save your money and time. Suspension of disbelief is one thing. Suspension of logic and humanity are another.

PS. The narrator needs to learn the difference between an Italian and a Russian accent. Italians use both definite and indefinite articles, Russians do not. It was not convincing and just one more reason this sucked.

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Very poor narration

Reviewed: 09-19-21

I am very well aware that we Americans are not the most cosmopolitan of peoples. Nonetheless, there is no reason to not even try. The absurd lack of effort (or what I presume is lack of effort) in not even coming close to “conventional” pronunciations is astounding. It’s almost like being proud of one’s provincialism. I mean, we don’t HAVE to aspire to the intellectual heights (or lows) of the average US president or television celebrity! It’s really just a matter of respect.

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1 person found this helpful

Overall entertaining

Reviewed: 07-06-21

Narrator makes Andrea sound like a Yiddish Tailor rather than a Greek partisan. And Miller’s voice may have been even less convincing (though the silly “American” dialogue doesn’t help.)

Mallory is the worst secret agent in history. Kind of hilarious really.

Despite all of these things, the story is overall entertaining.

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Absurd

Reviewed: 02-11-21

It’s not absurd that RFK was murdered by the national security state. It is, however, absurd that the author thinks that the Kennedys were some kind of progressive heroes. They were not. At best they were borderline liberals who were stewards of the empire and elite interests. That doesn’t mean that the unhinged right didn’t see them as communists, but those nutjobs have never been a good arbiter of reality. Anyway, the Kennedy worship is irritating, misguided and absurd.

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5 people found this helpful

Bizarre Hero

Reviewed: 04-14-20

Our Hero is a very unusual person. Perhaps even a psychopath. He must have had a strange childhood. Being taught not just languages, sailing and flying but modern weapons, battlefield first aid, principles of military leadership and even hand to hand fighting I can only wonder what he thought he was being prepared for. “Son, you need to know these things just in case there’s a world war and you're caught behind enemy lines.” No pressure or anything. Just let us know how the therapy goes...

He doesn’t seem to have a big, or even a small group of friends. He doesn’t seem at all interested in girls, or even boys. He doesn’t seem bothered in the least when he starts killing people, even up close and personal. He doesn’t seem more than a little put out about his comrades being killed. No bad dreams, no irrational crying, no bouts of drinking, deeply inhaling petrol fumes or other escapes. He seems fully acclimated to a culture of violence and death. In fact, he seems quite happy. Psychopath it seems. Perhaps once the war is over he’ll be the one making a new pair of boots out of the neighbor’s skin. (But he seemed like such a nice, quiet boy...)

The author kind of tips his hand with that stuff in the epilogue about breeding. "I was a Hosker and I was just doing what my dad had done and my grandfather too. I daresay if I had gone back in time I would have found Hoskers doing the same thing at the Alma, Waterloo, Blenheim, probably back to Agincourt and Crecy. You don't change your blood."

Might as well have been saying “it’s all in the genes, you see, the good ones and the bad ones. Some of them we might even call untermensch and our kind we can call ubermensch. All right, let’s get back to this war against the evil Nazis!” Could the author really have been this obtuse? Maybe. The fact that in this entire book about commandos there was not one joke about "going commando" suggests so.

So why not a lower review? One star, say? Actually I enjoy the "guy stuff" about making terrorist devices out of potato mashers, etc. It's all kind of fun. Most of us admire skill and courage and some of that is well done by this author. Given their popularity, it's clear that I'm not alone in this enjoyment. But it's just escapist fantasy in the end. The great wars of life and death struggles against an overwhelmingly powerful enemy are no more, unless you're in an occupied country fighting off the great imperial power of our time, nudge, nudge, say no more.

We despise the powerlessness of our own lives and long for a heroic struggle against evil. Like fighting the fascists alongside peasants. When the character Ned was introduced as a commie who fought in Spain I made a bet with myself that he'd be killed off and we'd never get a conversation about what led to his beliefs, what motivated him to go, what he saw, experienced and learned. I won that one. I didn't think it took that much literary courage to spare a few sentences for such an interesting character but not everyone has the courage of a hero.

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